Graveyard groundskeeper

Heritage Roses Otago volunteer Robyne Selbie, of Dunedin, moves a bag full of weeds and foliage as her daughter’s dog Ellie keeps her company at the Northern Cemetery in Dunedin yesterday morning.

Heritage Roses Otago convener Fran Rowling said the group met at the cemetery the first Monday of every month to clean it up.

She said there were about 1300 roses at the cemetery and they required about three hours of upkeep from its 15 members every month.

The group’s main focus was looking after roses that were planted there more than 150 years ago.

A lot of people visited the cemetery just to see the roses, she said.